The diseases of the peoples of this region are many, and the most widespread disease was the germ of nationalist-sectarian-tribal thought, The main disease of the diseases was the disease of nationalisms, There is Arab nationalism, there is Zionist nationalism, and other relatively small nationalisms, However, Arab nationalism and Zionist nationalism were the most hostile and fought with each other, despite the great similarity between them, They are twins that are similar and conflicting at the same time, and both suckled and suckled from the breast of ethnic ideology.

What are the features of Arab nationalist thought, and what are the features of Zionist nationalist thought?
 Arab nationalist thought was born at the beginning of the twentieth century at the hands of the people of the Levant with the aim of getting rid of Ottoman colonialism, A group of people from the Levant found that there were things that united them, such as language, culture, and shared life. However, the most important unifying factor was the Arab ethnic factor, Even the Arab unity thought within the framework of Arab nationalism was based on the ethnic factor, which, on the other hand, contributed greatly to the outbreak of internal crises, for example, in Iraq and Syria with Kurdish nationalism, with South Sudan in Sudan, with the Copts of Egypt, and with Syrian and Amazigh nationalism, etc. Sometimes this was due to the rejection of the hegemony of Arab nationalism, and sometimes due to this Arab nationalism’s rejection of the rest of the nationalities and considering them null and void or non-existent.

The extension of the Arab ethnic factor over peoples and homelands was reflected in the extension of the geographical factor inhabited by these peoples, which is traditionally called the Arab homeland, The Arab homeland is the homeland of Arab ethnic nationalism, which sits on a geography that is the Arab geography, which included all the areas opened during the time of the Caliphs until it reached distant areas such as the Comoros Islands, Mauritania, and others.

Arab nationalism is characterized by a tendency towards Arabization inherited from the policy of conquests, which Arabized people religiously and linguistically after their lands and homelands were occupied by the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, as was the case in the Levant, North Africa, and other regions, This has made Arab nationalist thought, or the thought of the Arabists, an occupying thought full of violence whose roots extend back 1440 years and continue to this day, What happened in the early twentieth century was nothing more than giving this occupation or conquest, as the Arabists wanted to call it, a theoretical form and crystallizing it into a state or states, which had to be unified regardless of whether they were qualified for unity or not, since the ethnic factor was sufficient to embrace this unity and give it the necessary impetus to survive and develop, in contrast to what we know about the rest of the units or unions, such as the European Union, which was founded on economic and political pillars, after the multiple European national concepts were abolished.

Zionism emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a nationalism that initially neglected and ignored the land on which the Hebrews had previously lived in the world, for example in Palestine, and later as citizens in various countries and societies,In a later era, ethno-geographical concepts were awakened, and race and the Promised Land became the basis. Here, the identity of the Hebrews became independent of the identity of the countries in which they lived, and their geography distanced itself from the geography of the countries and societies in which they later lived, until the matter of the geographical alternative settled on Palestine, i.e. the Promised Land, which must embrace the common ethno-racial origin that defines the Zionist identity, and the Zionists who in turn are descended from their ancestors in Palestine, In short, it can be said that ethnic belonging was what united the foundations of Arab nationalist thought and Zionist nationalist thought.

The idea of ​​a nation-state built on ethnic foundations was a point of similarity between Arab nationalism and Zionist nationalism, Geographically, the Arab homeland is the area inhabited by the Arab race after the conquests, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Gulf—the original homeland of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula—plus the lands of peoples who were Arabized, such as Syria, Egypt, and Morocco. Ethnicity became the primary factor in drawing borders, This method was used by the Muslim Brotherhood, whose state’s borders are determined by the presence of believers, If they are found in Russia, then Russia is part of the Caliphate, and so on. All of this is no different from Zionist nationalist thought, where the presence of Zionists in a region, even one occupied by war, means that this region has become part of their state,It can be said that Israel first forms, builds, and gathers the people, then seeks land for them. If the number of Zionists were to suddenly increase by about two million, a war would erupt to secure a suitable place for them under the sun, The flaw in both nationalisms is the subordination of the land to the race, while the correct approach is the subordination of the race or races to the land, The important factor is the ethnicity, The geographer first, and the one who inhabits it second.

The relationship of the state, and consequently nationalism, to religion is similar in the case of Zionist nationalism and Arab nationalism. Here, it is necessary to try to understand the birth of Arab nationalist thought in the early twentieth century at the hands of groups, most of which were Lebanese,Arab nationalism has two phases: the phase of beginning and the phase of maturity or end, In the initial phase, the initiative was mostly Christian, and in the end, it became mostly Muslim, The beginning was influenced by the situation of religious minorities, The enthusiasm of some for Arab nationalist thought was driven, even if unconsciously, by concern for the safety of minorities, who felt a possible threat from the Muslim majority.

Arab nationalist thought ultimately became racist, though its racism was not initially religious,Some groups promoted Arab nationalism as a shield against religious racism, However, in its culmination, particularly after 1928, Arab nationalist racism merged with religious racism, transforming Arabism into a religion and religion into Arabism, This shifted the situation for the minority, creating an even greater threat. Even Antoun Saadeh’s acknowledgment that “we are all Muslims”—some through Muhammad, others through Christ—did not remedy the situation, Aflaq, for his part, declared final surrender, asserting that Arabism is a religion and religion is Arabism, The aim of this move was to undermine the political movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had recently emerged in 1928 under al-Banna and Qutb, Thus, a mutual exploitation and blackmail of Arabism by religion and of religion by Arabism was born, Defending ethnic Arabism became defending religion, and defending religion became defending Arabism, In this way, religion, with its universal essence, yielded to this pressure, Arabism has a national essence, and national Arabism submitted to the international religion in a rapprochement based on the common interest in sharing power, This rapprochement was strained several times, and the reason for the strain was always the attempt of one party to increase its share of power and thus violate the agreement of consensus, rapprochement and quota.

The Zionist movement is a settler-colonial movement that exploited religion, just as Arab nationalism did, in order to achieve the gathering of Zionists in Palestine, Zionism was not originally a religious movement like Arab nationalism, which was not originally a religious movement, The situation of the early Zionists was far from religion, just as the situation of the early Arab nationalists was far from religion, The negative interaction of Zionist nationalism with religion was similar to the interaction of Arab nationalist thought with religion, The contradiction turned into understanding, and thus religious Zionism was born in the end, and religious Arabism was born, and the hostility between the two nationalities and between the two religions was intensified, despite the national similarity and even the religious similarity.

Ethnic ideologies have always been a major cause of wars and a justification for human rights violations, as Nazi nationalism did, Arab nationalists and Zionist nationalists found no solution to the Palestinian problem other than war and fighting, Linking identity to race and blood only leads to more bloodshed, The civilized world has moved beyond the biological and ethnic concept of identity. Identity has become territorial, its source being the land on which a person lives, whoever they may be and regardless of their origin and lineage, The territorial definition of identity is capable of overcoming conflicts driven by ethnic tendencies. Continuing to rely on ethnic Arabism and then ethnic Zionist nationalism was enough to perpetuate the futile wars.

Whoever wants to triumph over religious Zionist nationalism must first triumph over religious Arab nationalism, and whoever wants to triumph over religious Arab nationalism must first triumph over religious Zionist nationalism, since Arabism is no different from Zionism in terms of its principles, intellectual origins, and religious ethnic tendencies!